{"id":178834,"date":"2018-08-08T19:42:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T00:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/08\/08\/this-is-the-sort-of-thing-that-takes-down-authoritarian-regimes\/"},"modified":"2018-08-08T19:42:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T00:42:00","slug":"this-is-the-sort-of-thing-that-takes-down-authoritarian-regimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2018\/08\/08\/this-is-the-sort-of-thing-that-takes-down-authoritarian-regimes\/","title":{"rendered":"This is the Sort of Thing that Takes Down Authoritarian Regimes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vladimir Putin is experiencing significant political blow-back for cuts to pensions and an increase in the retirement age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s part of the standard neoliberal playbook, and it is the sort of thing, rather than foreign adventurism or crack-downs on political rivals, that frequently result in major political shakeups:<\/p>\n

Pension reform is genocide!\u201d \u201cYou deprive us of our pension \u2013 we deprive you of your authority!\u201d \u201cWe don\u2019t want to die working!\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>These were only some of the slogans shouted by Russian protesters during mass rallies last weekend, held in response to a new reform that will rise the retirement age in Russia. From Moscow to St Petersburg to Siberia to the country\u2019s Far East, the rallies were a nationwide phenomenon across the world\u2019s biggest country.<\/span>

<\/span>For Vladimir Putin, the situation represents a rare mis-step. The tough-guy president has, for years, presented himself as a national defender, fully in synch with the concerns of the Russian street.<\/span>

<\/span>The media were not beating about the bush. Moscow newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets defined the protests as the \u201cmost dangerous and risky reform of President Putin\u2019s 20-year rule.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>More than three million Russian citizens have already signed an online petition against the pension reform which, starting from 2019, is due to gradually increase the retirement age from 60 to 65 for men and from 55 to 63 for women.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>However, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has stated clearly that reform is necessary to save Russia\u2019s pension system, which relies on state budget subsidies to stay afloat. Despite brave talk of sanctions resistance, a rising Russian economy, apparently successful overseas military adventures and the warm afterglow of the World Cup, low oil prices and Western sanctions continue to erode Moscow\u2019s finances.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Regardless of whether it is essential or not, the reform is colossally unpopular \u2013 about 90% of Russians oppose it. Naturally, it is having a deep impact on the approval rating of the United Russia party.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>As a result, Putin\u2019s popularity rate has been already affected by the reform, falling sharply from 80% in May to 64% in late July, according to the VTsIOM state pollster. This is problematic for Putin, considering that a great deal of Russian trust in him depends on his reputation as \u201cprotector of the Russian people\u201d against foreign threats and as guarantor of national stability, particularly after the chaos of the Yeltsin years.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I expect to see some sort of partial walk back from Putin, as well as long term political consequences.<\/p>\n

The number of authoritarian governments that have been brought down by implementing these sorts of neoliberal remedies, frequently at the hands of the IMF, is legion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vladimir Putin is experiencing significant political blow-back for cuts to pensions and an increase in the retirement age. It’s part of the standard neoliberal playbook, and it is the sort of thing, rather than foreign adventurism or crack-downs on political rivals, that frequently result in major political shakeups: Pension reform is genocide!\u201d \u201cYou deprive us …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[392,455,508],"class_list":["post-178834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-economy","tag-russia","tag-social-safety-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178834\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}